Mantello in Troy

Our opinion: The city needs a mayor who has both vision and experience. A race between two appealing candidates comes down to who can better take Troy where it needs to be.

Troy voters should be looking for a mayor who has an ambitious vision for a city so rich in history, so full of potential yet facing all the typical problems of a small upstate city. They also need to elect someone capable of providing adequate services, keeping taxes in check and addressing the more mundane quality-of-life issues.

In Carmella Mantello, they can have both.

Ms. Mantello, the Republican candidate, is our strong preference over Lou Rosamilia, a qualified and appealing Democrat. A city where bitterly contentious politics is so commonplace is the beneficiary this year of an engaging mayoral campaign waged on the high road.

Ms. Mantello very wisely sees how a better, more livable and more fiscally stable city can, and should, be developed along the Hudson River. The waterfront is an invaluable asset that sets Troy apart from cities of similar sizes and demographics.

“Why aren’t we where we should be?” she asks, calling for a more creative approach to leading the city.

Ms. Mantello has the background, certainly, as the former director of first the Hudson River Valley Greenway and then the New York State Canal Corp. That was a scandal-tainted agency when she took it over. By the end of her tenure, it was more of the effective vehicle for economic development that it should be.

Troy needs the larger tax base that could emerge along the waterfront. Ms. Mantello talks of attracting developers, especially downtown, by taking a more pro-business attitude that begins with bringing order and stability to tax assessments. She wants a one-year moratorium on reassessment and the higher taxes that almost always brings.

Ms. Mantello also has kept her attention on other matters important to Troy residents, ranging from congestion and sprawl on Hoosick Street to maintaining the city’s pocket parks.

Mr. Rosamilia, a county legislator as well as a teacher at Hudson Valley Community College, raises many of the same issues. He, too, says Troy badly needs a master plan. He also wants more development in a city that he says offers so much.

Yet he raises these points in a less imaginative way that seems to lack both the grasp of the bigger picture and the infectious energy that Ms. Mantello has. It’s not that we think he would be a bad mayor, but that we think she would be a better one.

Mr. Rosamilia boasts of not being a career politician. That has its virtues, surely, especially for the nominee of a party organization deep in scandal. But in Troy, being relativley new to politics also poses an obstacle. The more savvy and tested Ms. Mantello is a better choice.

11 Responses

Did you actually research her history at the Canal Corporation? Based on this endorsement, obviously not. She ran it tens of millions of dollars in the red and while there may have been no scandal, the operation of the canal system is a joke to boaters like myself. She has also run a very negative campaign, continually questioning the ethics of what appears to be a very well thought of man.

I’m not a boater but a voter in Troy and this piece is way off. Carmella did not do well as a City Councilwoman and she will be worse if mayor. We need Rosamilia’s depth and personality to put politics aside and move our city forward. Too bad the Times Union doesn’t get that.

The Times Union really missed this one….Lou Rosamilia is the one for Troy mayor. Carmella will be more of the same (politics as usual). Troy needs the change that Rosamilia will bring. He’s not a career politician. He has the educational credentials and coaching skills that Carmella lacks and are so needed to bring Troy together for progress.

I can’t imagine a clear thinking person maintaining the idea that Carmella Mantello did a respectable job as the director of the Canal Coporation. Lou is a far better choice. The author/authors should take the time to educate themselves before they attempt to write an article.

Yes, Phil, a coach knows how to build a team and Lou will use those skills to end the bickering. He also has a masters degree in accounting and finance. As for being a poltician, Lou was elected less than 2 years ago. Compare that to Carmella’s career of political appointments and the choice is clear for Lou.

Despite my admiration for Mr. Rosamilia, it would be better NOT to judge him on his record as a football coach. However, as a man who taught generations of students accounting and finance, he has an important skill for a small city mayor in the Northeast. Further, as a long time teacher, used to the energy of young people, he would be a lot better at dealing with smart “young turks” like Billie Jean Green, likely to be elected to the City Council this year as an “at large” member.

Ms. Mantello is an able woman, Troy-born and bred, but the Canal Corporation is FAR from a forward looking agency.